


Flashback

by Shadowy_Dumbo_Octopus



Series: Brockin' and Rollin' [1]
Category: Venom (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fix-It, Flash Thompson is alive, Gen, Gren is free of Knull and buddies with Flash, The Mania Symbiote Deserved Better, idk how to tag this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-11-24 21:35:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18170159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowy_Dumbo_Octopus/pseuds/Shadowy_Dumbo_Octopus
Summary: Yes, the title is a pun.A literal flashback to Flash's first meeting with the Grendel symbiote, and an explanation of how the Venom and Mania symbiotes came back. AU of the Cates run.





	Flashback

Andi frowned down at the idiot she considered an ex-coach and current-friend.

“Thompson,” she began, folding her arms over her chest, “I speak two and a half languages: English, some Spanish, and like three basic phrases in German, but I can't find any words capable of expressing how terrible this idea sounds to me.”

Flash Thompson, officially deceased, unofficially recovering, merely shot her a weary glare from where he half-sat and half-lied on his bed, the circles under his eyes as dark as the symbiote resting in the test tube he held in his hands.

The Grendel symbiote.

“I have to help it,” he told her, voice quiet yet full of determination. “I almost died to save it from that Maker fucker; I can't let it die like this.”

Andi looked into his eyes and saw the same look as after Venom had re-absorbed Mania.

Pain.

Sorrow.

Helplessness.

“I cannot let it die, Andi. It needs a host to recover, and I have a lot more experience with being one than you.” He shook his head. “Please understand.”

She sighed, sitting on the bed next to him, watching the motionless goo inside the tube. It was black like the Venom symbiote, but when light hit it a certain way, she swore that its body took on a slightly redder tint.

“What if it takes over you?” she asked without much conviction. The thing was too weak to even move, let alone exercise control of any kind over anything. “What if it's evil? Or…or I don't know, consumes your organs for power?”

Goddamnit, someone had to be the rational one in this fucking household!

Then again, she mused, chin propped up on her palm, if this symbiote was a god of some sort, perhaps it could bring back…

The memories of Mania were still fresh in her mind: the symbiote’s voice arguing with her about what pizza they should order; swinging through the neon-lit streets, wind howling in their ears and freedom surging through their veins; the feeling of being a part of something glorious, powerful… the feeling of being a “we.”

Andi missed being a “we.”

“Maybe,” Flash lifted the tube up to see the being more clearly, “but maybe not, and that maybe makes it worth a shot.”

He reached for the lid and placed his hand on it, sending Andi one last look.

She just shrugged, suddenly feeling weary and hollow, as if she would crumble into bits if she made a more rapid move. If only Mania were there to keep her together…

“Do it,” she whispered. It wasn't as if she could convince him otherwise, anyway. “Just open the fucking thing.”

Flash sat up straighter, leaning towards her a little and hissing when he accidentally applied too much pressure on a still-healing bruise.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“Bullshit. You were just arguing that this is a horrible idea, and now you're telling me to go through with it?” he brushed violet hair away from her face. “Come on, spill it. What's wrong?”

She swatted his hand away and silently shook her head.

“Just do it,” she said. “Be a hero.”

Casting her one last worried look, Flash opened the container.

The black slime surged at him, hitting him square in the chest and seeping into him faster than he could gasp.

Then, his entire body stiffened, every muscle rendered completely immobile. Flash blinked once, twice, and he was lying on a barren field under a black, starless sky. He looked around, trying to sit up, call out for Andi, but found either action impossible.

Suddenly, the sky moved, and two giant, white eyes opened above him.

 **_“YOU WILL NOT CONTROL ME!”_ ** a roar shook the entire universe, reverberating through every atom that made up Flash’s being. **_“WHATEVER WICKED SCHEME YOU DESIRE MY POWER FOR, I WILL TAKE NO PART IN.”_ **

_Well, fuck._

Flash desperately tried to shake his head, tell the god symbiote that he had no ill intents, but it had rendered him immobile, paralysed so that even thinking required almost titanic effort.

The dragon loomed above him, its breath like the bellows fanning the flames of hell, making his hair whip all around his face. The eyes narrowed.

 **_“I COULD DESTROY YOU WITH A THOUGHT IF NOT FOR MY WEAKENED STATE,”_ ** it told him. **_“YOU WILL RECEIVE THE HONOUR OF AIDING ME IN HEALING, MORTAL, BUT KNOW THIS,”_ **

The roar died down to a quiet, bone chilling whisper right at Flash's ear:

**“I will not let anyone control me again.”**

With that, he found himself back in his room, on the bed, only with all the yet unhealed injuries sustained in his escape from the _Project: Oversight_ labs completely gone, not even a scar remaining.

Andi was looking at him in shock.

They just stared at each other until Flash’s body lurched up into a seating position, hands reaching to attach the prosthetics to his legs, and then…

He froze. “Whoa whoa whoa whoa, hold up a moment!”

Huh, so it _was_ strong enough to take over, Andi mused, eyebrows raised.

A sleek, semi-serpentine head emerged from Flash's shoulder and glared at its host.

 **“Food,”** it hissed. **_“Now.”_ **

Flash held his hands up in surrender.

“Okay, sure,” he said quickly before the symbiote repeated the paralysis trick from earlier. “Just… just hang on a sec. Can we talk first?”

The Grendel growled, a deep and rattling sound fitting for a dragon. Still, Flash sensed that it backed down.

**“Make it quick.”**

“Alright,” he ran a hand through his hair, damp with sweat. “I'm happy to help you, pal, that's why I broke you out of that lab…”

“... almost dying in the process,” Andi piped in, wanting to be part of the discussion as well. “He _saved_ you.”

The symbiote looked at his host curiously. Lab? It did remember flashes of sterile, white rooms; glass and metal; unfamiliar beings in strange suits…

 _‘Scientists,’_ Flash's brain supplied. _‘Bad scientists.’_

His memories certainly matched his words, though the symbiote was still sceptical about what was the truth and what has been warped by the human’s mind.

“Anyways,” he continued, “I'm fine with helping you, but you can't just hijack my body like that. You spoke of not wanting to be controlled - well, I don't want to be controlled either.”

The Grendel symbiote shrank back abruptly, disappearing beneath his skin as the words seared them more severely than the fire that almost ended their life. They didn’t want to be like Knull; take complete control and leave nothing behind, give nothing in return. That wasn’t what symbiosis was about.

 **“I apologise,”** they whispered, curling up in the deepest pit of their host’s body. **“The violet one speaks true, I should show you more gratitude for freeing me. Forgive my behaviour - this situation is a peculiar one.”**

Flash smiled gently, mentally giving them a gentle nudge - an offer rather a demand.

 _“It’s okay, your highness,”_ he thought at them. _“You must be confused. As long as we establish boundaries, we would be more than happy to help you.”_

They hesitated for a moment. **“I require direct access to your memories in order to accurately judge your character and intentions,”** they replied. Better safe than trapped again.

Flash understood the sentiment, and nodded.

Andi watched with her chin propped up on her hand as Flash’s eyes unfocused for a few moments and he held completely still. Freaky business. Was that how she and her symbiote looked like when they were reading each other’s minds?

Eventually, Flash twitched, blinked a couple of times, smiled, and reached for his prosthetics.

 

~~~

 

“So,” he hummed after five boxes of triple chocolate chip cookies and two whole rotisserie chickens, “the Grendel symbiote, huh?”

A flicker of annoyance. **“Don’t call me that ever again.”** A series of images; Knull, the monster they became together laying waste to hundreds of worlds, countless lives extinguished by their sword. **“...bad memories.”**

“Duly noted,” he nodded, draining the jug of milk and reaching for another one. “What should we call you, then?”

The symbiote hesitated, lost. What _were_ they? They didn’t remember ever not being under Knull’s influence in some shape or other. The whole situation was, although welcome, incredibly strange.

 **“I…”** they swirled beneath Flash’s skin. **“I do not know. Please give me time to ponder this.”**

“No problem.”

**“Thank you. Do you have more of these little yellow things?”**

“French fries? A whole freezer.”

 

~~~

 

When both humans were at last fell asleep, the symbiote emerged from within the one who called himself Flash and looked down at him.

He seemed to be a kind being, they mused, having risked his life for them before even having interacted with them, his only knowledge about them being as Knull’s tool of destruction. What a strange creature.

They frowned. Wait… Flash Thompson? That name sounded familiar.

Could it be…? Could it be possible that one of the Klyntar had encountered him previously, and thus imprinted the memories of him into the Hive Mind? Unlikely, yet not impossible.

They retreated back into his body, coming to rest between his internal organs, and focused. Connecting to the Hive Mind came to them as naturally as breathing did to their host, through the task required significantly more effort due to their weakened state.

Flash Thompson, Flash Thompson… Which one of their children had come into contact with him?...

There! A Klyntar symbiote commonly known as Venom, their consciousness curled up and quiet among the chatter of their kin. The symbiote-god reached towards it, bringing it down to this strange new planet, so strange to them and yet so familiar to their child.

 **“Awaken, little one,”** they whispered, **“and let me see him through your eyes.”**

The memories unfurled like a blooming flower, and somewhere in a dingy motel in San Francisco, inside the body of a tired, sad man who could barely remember the times when he didn’t cry himself to sleep, the Venom symbiote stirred…

**“Eddie?”**

...and awoke.

 

~~~

 

The next morning, Flash was relieved that his appetite wasn’t as ravenous as the day before, indicating that his new bodymate was feeling a bit better.

“How are we feeling, your highness?” he asked over their second bowl of cereal. Andi was at work, doing a dayshift in a coffee shop, and wouldn’t be back until dinner.

The symbiote emerged from his shoulder and gave him something that… kiiiind of resembled a smile?

 **“Better,”** they replied, **“thank you.”**

They then extended a tendril, brought the cereal box closer, and dived into it.

 _What a divine being,_ Flash mused, and continued to eat his Nesquik.

 

~~~

 

 **“Flash Thompson,”** they piped up suddenly during a nature documentary; these seemed to fascinate them. **“Tell us about your relation to the Mania symbiote.”**

Flash almost dropped the popcorn bowl. “Huh? How do y-? Oh, I suppose you know about them from my memories?”

They nodded, unhinged their goo-jaw, and inhaled half of their leftover popcorn. **“You could say that.”**

He scratched his cheek, feeling the stubble scratch against his fingers. He should really shave one of these days. “Um, so they were cloned from the Venom symbiote - you know of them, right? You do, okay - and ended up with Andi, or The Violet One, as you call her. They were then… cursed? We tried to save them, but eventually the Venom symbiote had to re-absorb them.” He sighed. “We- I’m sorry. I wish there was something I could’ve done.”

His sorrow was genuine; it didn’t take peering into his mind to see that. The symbiote gave one more nod, and ducked briefly into the Hive Mind.

Mania, Mania… Surely they had to be there! All symbiotes, native to Klyntar or no, had a connection to the Hive Mind, no matter how faint.

Ah, there you are!

 **“They were close to Andi,”** they said upon re-emerging. **“Theirs was a true partnership, not…”** another image of Knull.

Flash nodded, bringing forth some of his own memories (even though he was sure that the god was already familiar with them.)

“Andi misses them,” he said. “She thinks that I don’t know, but it’s obvious.”

 **“It is,”** they agreed. **“They need each other. If there was a being capable of restoring Mania to who they used to be, it is her.”**

There was hope in Flash’s heart, a fragile sapling barely rising up from the soil. “Could you…?”

 **“Not yet,”** they replied. **“Too weak now, but it is possible.”**

The sapling exploded in a thousand twisting vines, wrapping around their host’s heart and choking his throat as white flowers bloomed within his lungs.

Hope.

Joy.

Flash jumped up to his feet, the popcorn spilling all over the floor. His eyes were filled with tears and his voice was breaking as he let out a cry of joy.

“You could do that?” he laughed, dopamine flooding his mind. “You could do that! Oh my god, holy shit, you could actually do that!”

They nodded, a little stunned by the sudden changes in their physical position.

 **“Not yet,”** they repeated as their host sat down, bouncing up and down in his seat like a child they saw on the Tee-Vee _(“Just TV is fine.”)_ So much excitement and anticipation for the joy of another. Empathy.

The god-symbiote smiled at him. **“You are a good man, Flash Thompson,”** they said, **“just like Andi is a good woman. I feel tremendous gratitude for the kindness you show me, and will repay gladly as soon as my state permits me to. For now, however, could you put on the next “episode” of this fascinating spectacle?”**

Grinning widely, Flash reached for the remote.

 

~~~

 

It turned out that the symbiote vastly underestimated their own capabilities, because as soon as Andi returned home, weary and with her ears still ringing after that old man screamed down the café because his order took too long, Flash was already waiting for her at the door, accompanied by two symbiotes.

One of them was the dragon one. The other wasn’t.

Andi’s bag landed on the porch, forgotten, as she sprinted towards them and, with tears blurring her vision, crashed into the black shape she could already hear calling out for her.

Black goo swirled around her, covering her body in a familiar embrace as her mindscape lit up with a voice she barely dared to hope she would hear again.

**“Andi!”**

“Mania!”

Flash watched with a smile as the two of them became one, sitting on the floor as joyful sobs wracked their shoulders, arms wrapped around themselves as if the symbiosis wasn’t enough.

 **“They are weakened,”** the dragon symbiote spoke inside his mind, **“but the nature of their fatigue is much like yours when we first bonded - they will recover in time.”**

He nodded. _“Thank you for letting them have this,”_ he thought back, seeing a tendril emerge from Mania’s cheek to dry their tears, and thought of his own partner, wherever they were now.

The symbiote picked up on the thought, and filed it away for further consideration. How lucky they were to find two people who considered Klyntar such precious companions! Perhaps they could even accept… no, they were too tired for that; bringing Mania all the way from Klyntar and into part of their being was an excruciating effort.

Satisfied and with a plan already forming in their mind, they settled between Flash’s lungs and fell asleep.


End file.
